SINGAPORE - Professor Stuart Cook, a cardiologist and researcher here, has been awarded the Tanoto Foundation Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine.

Prof Cook, who is the senior consultant at the department of cardiology and distinguished clinician scientist of the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), has done extensive work in areas such as human genetics, heart muscle disease and cardiac imaging.

"His research focuses on identifying new ways of diagnosing, stratifying and treating patients with cardiovascular diseases, " said the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre. "His work in Singapore is particularly relevant as the genetic makeup of Asians differs from other genotyopes indicating that research focusing on the Asian population is needed to better understand and develop treatment... more suited for them."

In September this year, the Tanoto Foundation Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine was established as part of a S$3million gift from the Tanoto Foundation to advance research in cardiovascular medicine. It will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Singapore Government.

Prof Cook's research has been published in more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers, which have been carried in journals such as Nature, New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Genetics.

Professor Ranga Krishnan, dean of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and chairman of the selection committee for the professorship said: "Prof Cook's work is important because it is a multi-pronged patient-oriented approach to examining a complex disease, advance knowledge and develop novel applications to improve patient care and treatment."